Alive at Sunset (Rituals of the Night Series Book 2) (8 page)

A
manda watched the door close as Luna left in a hurry. She stared at the dark wood for a long minute. Luna was acting so different lately; she didn’t understand why she was being so secretive. What was Luna hiding that was so bad she couldn’t talk about it?

When the semester had ended, Amanda thought they’d be able to spend a lot of girl time together and become good friends. When she had talked to her about going on double dates, she had been looking forward to it even though she knew that her tiny friend dreaded it.

Luna didn’t seem to be interested in hanging with Amanda anymore. She didn’t seem to be interested in hanging out with
anyone
. For a twenty year old woman, she was strange. She wasn’t interesting in dating; she didn’t care to make any friends. All she wanted to do was work until she collapsed.

Luna was friends with Amanda of course, but she didn’t want to hang out with her like college girls did. She had a different agenda that she worked from. She seemed traumatized by something. She could understand her roommate being upset after the death of her dog, but she had been strange hours before that.

Amanda wanted to help her friend and make her feel better again, back to herself. She wanted her to be the girl she was when they had first started talking. Luna didn’t want her to even try. Did Luna feel like she couldn’t trust her? Or was there some other reason that Luna refused to talk about what she knew?

Either way she would find out what was bothering Luna. Luna would either open up to her on her own, or Amanda would have to do a little bit of investigating. She would figure out how to make her happy again. She had at least one lead to work from.

Luna’s friend, Max.

Luna never seemed interested in answering her phone when Max called. If anything, she seemed to get frustrated. Amanda knew that they had a friendship that went way back to elementary school. Amanda didn’t have any friendships that were that old, but she knew if she did, she would cherish them more than anything.

It was odd that Luna refused to answer the phone to him anymore when she used to be happy the few times a year when he got in touch with her. What was it that he was trying to tell her that she didn’t want to hear?

If she answered it the next time Max called, would he tell her the message he was trying to relay to Luna? Amanda knew that Max was the only hope she had of figuring out what was bothering her roommate. Luna might get upset if Amanda started snooping around in her personal life, but she couldn’t help it. She hoped that Max hadn’t given up on calling, because if he had, Amanda had nothing left to work off of.

                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna walked down the sidewalk, feeling hollow inside again. The events of earlier were beginning to weigh down on her. She had never been good at dealing with death and grief. After all she had gone through, she knew she should’ve been able to cope better.

But she couldn’t.

Every time she was presented with fresh grief, she felt her insides twist and collapse. All she wanted to do was yowl in frustration. It was a childish reaction she knew, but it was what she desired to do. It would make her feel better if she could let everyone know how irritated she was.

In front of her, a mourning dove flitted to the ground slowly. It sat for a moment staring at her as if it was mocking her. She watched it carefully until finally it decided it had had enough of an audience.

Mourning indeed,
Luna thought sadly as she watched the small, brown dove fly away again.

When Luna finally got to the deepest part of town, she found the city noises weren’t enough to break her from her melancholy thoughts. All she could think of was when she had been there with Lucky yesterday.

She’d have to go out alone.

Luna kept walking. Cars honked, people chattered as they walked past her up and down the sidewalks, and yet her mind remained fixed on the absence of her dog. The absence of Lucky from her side throbbed and radiated in her mind. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, something was missing. She would never be able to fix that feeling. She let out a guttural yowl full of frustration and ran the last few blocks to
The Burger Shack
, trying to tire herself out so that she wouldn’t have as much energy to spend on her aggravation.

She stopped outside the restaurant to catch her breath and compose herself. She pushed her way inside and was surprised to find that in in the restaurant her thoughts were drowned out by the chaos. Smells berated her, sounds engulfed her, and her eyes darted around the different colors from the uniforms to the posters on the walls. From several places she could hear the excited chatter of toddlers as they wandered around the building. The place was perfectly distracting. Luna smiled in relief and took in a breath as she got in line.

Luna could easily work there; she would even enjoy it. Even though she had talked down minimum wage jobs when she had been in high school, she knew that that place would be perfect for her. The noises would keep her from thinking too much, like she wanted.

After the four people in line ahead of her were waited on, Luna finally reached the counter. She glanced absently at the menu though none of the food looked good. She returned her gaze to the cash register to ask for an application. A blonde girl with a long ponytail through the back of her black hat stood there snapping on her gum as she watched Luna expectantly.

“Can I take your order?” she asked.

Luna was about to ask for an application when she stopped herself. The more she looked at the girl, the more familiar she looked. She narrowed her eyes as she suddenly remembered who she was.

“Sarah?” she asked.

The girl’s face looked unsure. For a minute, Luna wondered if she made a mistake.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” the girl that looked like Sarah asked, tilting her head slightly.

“It’s Luna, from Shawnee High School?” she ventured. “You and your sister gave me a makeover for the school dance in senior year?”

Sarah’s face flooded with recognition, and Luna felt relieved. “Oh, my God, Luna! I remember you! Wow! It’s been years. How have you been since graduation?”

Luna looked at her for a minute, relieved that the moment wasn’t as awkward as it could’ve been. Sarah hadn’t technically been Luna’s friend. Her sister hadn’t been either. They had been roped into giving Luna a makeover and after that they had formed a slight bond. Even though they hadn’t been close in high school, they had a huge commonality…Chance. Sarah was Sarah Cross…sister to Susan Cross who had been murdered in cold blood by her arch rival.

“I’ve been alright. What about you?” Luna replied. She avoided having emotion in her voice. Luna knew that she could avoid having what happened with Amy happen again with Sarah if she was careful.

“I’ve been so-so,” she replied half-heartedly.

“Is something wrong?” Luna asked her.

When she thought about it, she knew that it was obvious that there was. Sarah had been a different person back in high school. She knew people changed when they got into the real world, but Sarah was drastically different. Sarah had been quiet and solemn; she had been nothing more than her sister’s shadow. Her hair had been dark, and she never lifted her eyes up off of the ground. The girl before her had hair that was dyed blonde, and her attitude was fiery and vivacious. It was obvious Chance had had a part of Sarah’s past as well.

Sarah bent over the counter to lean towards Luna suddenly. “I’ve been looking into Susan’s death a lot lately,” she whispered in Luna’s ear.

Luna’s face brightened. She liked that Sarah was still suspicious of her sister’s death. To Luna, it meant that she could still be turned against Chance.

Luna knew that only her and Max knew Susan’s fate for sure. Since Chance had burned the body, Susan’s case had never been solved, and her disappearance remained a cold case. Luna was glad to hear that Sarah might have an idea that would allow Luna to tell her what she knew.

“What have you found out?” Luna asked wondering if Sarah knew that Chance was involved.

“Well, I know that she’s gone. Dead gone. It’s been too long for her just to be missing,” Sarah said.

“I’m sorry,” Luna said meaning it.

“It’s okay, because at least I think I know who killed her,” Sarah said looking at Luna through eyes that were glittering emotion.

“Who?”

A throat clearing sound came from behind her before Sarah had the chance to speak again. Luna turned around to see that a line of six people waited to place their orders behind her. Sarah peered around her to see the line, and she breathed in sharply through her teeth.

“Hey, I’m really sorry, but I gotta get back to work for now or else the managers will be on me. But I’ll definitely tell you what I think the next time I see you,” she said, and her sparkling eyes looked regretful.

Luna nodded feeling disappointed. She had been so close to something so tantalizing only to have it ripped away at the last moment. It stung a little bit.

“Do you want to order something?” Sarah asked Luna.

“I just wanted to get an application,” Luna said.

The place would beautifully distract her from her haunting thoughts and far too vivid flashbacks. The thought of working beside someone else that had gotten tangled in Chance’s web and survived was too much to resist. Luna wanted to have a longer conversation with Sarah and find out everything that she knew.

Sarah nodded at Luna’s request. She stepped away from the register to go into the back of the restaurant where other people similarly dressed were rushing about preparing food. She came back with a small stack of paper. She looked it over for a minute before she handed it to Luna.

Luna took it from her quickly before she nodded at her. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Sarah said pulling on the front of her hat in a farewell gesture. “I hope you get the job, it’d be great to work with a familiar face.”

Luna stepped from the line with the application held tight in her hand. She wanted the job more than she had thought possible. If she could get close to Sarah, she would tell her what she knew. Luna might not be able to get Amy’s part of the story thanks to her big mouth, but at the very least she could tell Sarah what had happened to her sister.

It wasn’t much since Chance had never been arrested for her death (or for any of his murders). The least that Luna could do was give Sarah some peace of mind by finally revealing the mystery of her sister’s disappearance.

A
bout a half an hour later, Luna still hadn’t come home. Amanda sighed and got up off of the couch. She walked half-heartedly to the kitchen and looked for something to eat. Suddenly, she heard the familiar chime of Luna’s cell phone coming from her room. Amanda shook her head in disappointment. She didn’t understand why Luna paid to keep a cell phone when she didn’t even take it with her when she went out.

The ring sounded again, and Amanda felt herself cave. She walked down the hall and carefully into Luna’s room. She followed the source of the sound to the small phone on the floor. It was obvious that Luna had thrown it. What had made her upset enough to do that?

Amanda shook her head again, as the phone rang out for its fourth ring. She bent down to pick it up knowing that whoever was calling would probably hang up. She held it to her ear.

“Hello?” she said into it.

“Amanda again, huh,” Max’s voice said.

“Yeah, Luna’s not here,” Amanda said.

“That’s about right,” Max said disinterested. “Damn, I just can’t get her to answer anymore.”

“Could I ask you a question?” Amanda asked feeling her heart flutter. That might be her moment to figure out what was wrong with Luna.

“Shoot,” Max replied.

“Why do you keep calling, Luna?” Amanda asked quietly. “I noticed that she’s going out of her way to not answer the phone. Yet you continue to call her anyways. Why is that?”

“I keep calling her because…because…” For a moment Max struggled to find the right words. He certainly couldn’t tell Amanda about DreamWorld, because she wouldn’t understand. “I’m worried about her,” he said finally.

“You too, huh?” Amanda asked.

“Yeah, she hasn’t been right lately,” Max said thinking idly that that was true in more ways than one. “I just wanted to talk to her to see if I could find out what was wrong. Obviously, she doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“You and me both,” Amanda said dejectedly.

Both parties were silent for a moment.

“Will you tell her I called?” Max asked hopefully.

“Of course,” Amanda said. “I’ll tell her the moment she gets back.”

“Great,” Max said and hung up the phone without even saying goodbye.

Amanda frowned as she stared at the phone that suddenly went dead in her ear. Max sounded worried about Luna, sure, but it also sounded to her like he was hiding something as well.

                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna stepped out of line and over to the nearest table by the counter. She took a pen out of her pocket and filled in the application as quickly as she could. She got back in line to hand it to Sarah, and she promised that the manager would give her a call if she was interested. Sarah promised she would help Luna try to get the job by giving her a good reference. Luna still couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed; she knew that waiting for a call meant that she probably wouldn’t be hired in a while.

She walked the distance back to the apartment feeling exhaustion weighing down on her. She wanted to do nothing more than go home and take a nap. She hoped that Amanda wouldn’t still want to go shopping. Luna did the secret knock on the door for Amanda to answer it.

“Are you alright?” Amanda asked as she let Luna inside.

“I didn’t need to stay out any longer. I think I found a job,” Luna said. She moved into the apartment and glanced back at her roommate.

Amanda nodded as she closed the door. “Max called again.”

Luna tensed. “Did you answer it?”

“Yeah, of course. He seems really worried about you, he wants you to call him back,” Amanda said.

She monitored Luna’s reaction to see that she looked relieved that her message had been so simple. Luna relaxed. She was glad Max wasn’t trying to involve her roommate in the DreamWorld escapade. That was one less thing to worry about at least.

“Thanks. And I will,” Luna said.

In her head she knew that was a lie, but she didn’t want Amanda to press her about it. Amanda nodded and headed into the kitchen. Luna watched her as she rummaged through the cabinets for something to eat. Luna figured that meant that the conversation was over.

She padded into her room and looked at her phone that Amanda had neatly set back down on her dresser. Luna went over to it and picked it up. She opened it slowly, wondering what she would see when she did. She looked at the notifications to see six missed calls from Max. She took in a deep breath slowly. He was getting on her last nerves. She had no intention of calling him back. The more he harassed her, the less desire she had to ever talk to him again.

                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max pressed the end button and threw his own phone across the room bitterly. Why wouldn’t Luna answer her phone anymore? Whenever he called he either got her voicemail or her secondary voicemail, Amanda. Didn’t she understand that what he had to say was important? She understood it before, but she didn’t seem to realize that their lives
were
in fact in danger again. It was a game to her.

He realized that she had lost her dog to some unknown cause, but that didn’t give her a pass that made her reaction okay. She was being selfish, childish, and rude. She was his closest, oldest friend sure, but it didn’t seem to matter. Max hated admitting that he was wrong, but he was willing to do it in a heartbeat if it meant that she would listen. That’s how he knew the situation was serious.

He needed Luna to hear him out, hear everything that he had to say, and help him fix the problem before it turned into the massive event that it had three years ago. If she refused to talk to him, he didn’t know what he could do. He had to hope, for the sake of his life and her own, that she would wise up and see some sense.

If she didn’t, well there would be nothing else he could do.

                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The phone in Luna’s hand suddenly began to ring as if it wanted to prove that it was still alive. She looked at it, expecting nobody else but Max again. She was surprised to find it was Rose calling. She rushed to answer the call, wondering what her mom had to say.

“Hi, Mom,” Luna said.

“Oh, Luna!” Rose replied, and it was obvious that she had been crying only a few minutes before.

Luna’s heart sank as she listened to her devastated mother speak. Had she found out about Lucky’s death somehow?

“Mom, what’s the matter?” Luna asked desperately. She felt helpless as she listened to her mother cry for another long, drawn out moment.

“David’s in the hospital, Luna,” she replied finally.

“Wh-what happened?” Luna stuttered, shocked at the news.

“He had a seizure and went into a coma,” she said.

“When did this happen?” Luna asked feeling stupefied.

“A little over an hour ago,” Rose replied.

Luna was horrified. She was barely aware of the fact she had begun trembling. What was happening? Her world had been fine two days ago, but it was collapsing in on itself like a star at the end of its life. No matter what she tried to do, she was powerless to change a thing.

“W-why? What’s wrong with him?” Luna finally brought herself to ask. If she didn’t regret not visiting before, she definitely did in that moment.

“Doctors aren’t sure, really. They don’t know if it’s from an illness that he has or something else. They have to run a lot more tests before they know for sure,” Rose said and then sobbed loudly again.

“That’s awful,” Luna managed to mutter.

“Listen, can you make a trip to the hospital?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, yeah of course, Mom,” Luna replied.

“I’ll see you in a bit then,” Rose said and hung up without saying goodbye.

Luna stared at the dead phone in her hand. Lucky died, and David was sick. Was Max right about his warnings? Was something truly wrong in DreamWorld again? It was hard to ignore the timing which was far too coincidental for Luna’s tastes -just like Michelle’s cancer.

Amanda stepped into Luna’s room suddenly, but Luna didn’t notice her friend’s quiet approach. Amanda stared at her roommate worriedly as Luna stared at the phone still clutched in her hand. Neither of them moved for a long minute.

“Is something wrong?” Amanda asked her cautiously.

“Yeah,” Luna said absently.

Amanda waited for her to explain, but a long minute of silence made her sure her friend wasn’t going to do that. “What’s the matter?”

“My dad’s in the hospital,” Luna said finally, dragging her eyes away from the phone to give Amanda the saddest look that she had ever seen in her life.

“What’s wrong with him?” Amanda asked; her tone was sympathetic as she looked helplessly back at Luna.

“Doctors don’t know. They need to run some more tests. Rose wants me to come down to see him,” Luna said sounding as if she was reading a script.

“Want me to come with you?” Amanda asked.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Luna said. For some reason, she actually didn’t want to be alone.

“No, not at all,” Amanda said surprised that Luna had agreed. “Now, come on. Rose is waiting for you.” She grasped the edge of Luna’s arm gently and led her into the hall.

Luna barely noticed her friend’s touch. She was oddly numb inside and out. Too much bad seemed to be crashing down on her at once. What had she done in the past few days to make karma
that
mad?

Amanda grasped the keys off of the counter and led Luna to her car. She helped Luna climb into the passenger seat, and Amanda got in the driver’s seat before she began to drive. Luna leaned against the window letting the cold glass touch her skin. She was beyond numb…the cold didn’t even bother her. The thought of the near-accident she had been in had frightened her of vehicles earlier. She thought about it and found that it didn’t even faze her anymore.

Amanda glanced at her from the corner of her eye. “Something’s bothering you that you don’t want to tell me.”

Luna flinched. Why did Amanda keep bringing that up? Even being numb, Luna felt the fear about telling Amanda her past. She wished that her roommate would drop it.

It was unlikely.

“No, I’m just really worried about my Dad. I mean Lucky just died, and now my Dad is violently ill. I’m worried about my karma,” Luna said. She wasn’t lying to Amanda, but, like usual, she wasn’t telling her the whole truth either.

Amanda gave her another sympathetic look before focusing back on the road. “Things will get better in time, I’m sure.”

Luna understood that Amanda’s words were meant as kind, but they were only frustrating. Amanda had no idea what she was feeling. No idea what she had felt before, and why she was the way that she was. Amanda hadn’t been through anything even close to what Luna had been through.

“Easy for you to say,” Luna grumbled, keeping her eyes out the window.

If Max was right, if her past was coming back to haunt her, things wouldn’t get better. Amanda didn’t know it, but the thought deeply haunted Luna. If things began to happen again she might end up in the hospital herself.